"One Dies and Ten More Addicts are Born ... We Don't Worry About Them"

"You inject this into a hen, and if it takes between a minute and a minute and a half to die, that means it came out really good."

"If it doesn't die or takes too long to die, we'll add xylazine."

Fentanyl cook 

"The illicit market gets much more benefit from its substances by cutting them with different things such as xylazine."

"You enhance it and therefore need less product, and you get more profit."

Alexiz Bojorge Estrada, deputy director, Mexico mental health and addiction commission

Mexico’s government on Dec. 3 announced the largest-ever seizure of fentanyl in Sinaloa state. The Sinaloa Cartel has been split by warring factions, but production continues. Omar H. Garcia Harfuch/Handout  via REUTERS

 

Cartel laboratories in Mexico are where the synthetic opioids that reach North American markets derive from. Those who are called 'cooks' mix chemicals to the point where they are felt to be acceptable for the street market; precision is not a prime consideration, whereas the cartel knows that the products that provide a big hit are; dangerous but totally effective, as far as the end-users are concerned and this is where their profits lie. 

Those who spend their time mixing chemicals in rudimentary cook sites, by default expose themselves to toxic substances, so much so that on occasion some cooks end up retching, then they pass out and occasionally die. University chemistry students are being recruited by the cartels to work as cooks. One of these students spoke to an undercover investigator revealing that drug users living on the street are sometimes brought in to test their formulas.

 

New York Times

 

Injecting them as guinea pigs with the synthetic opioid. "We've had people convulse, or start foaming at the mouth", the student said. No one has yet died in her experience she said, but bad batches have been responsible for bad outcomes. 

In Culiacan, Mexico, cartel operatives visit  homeless encampments, bringing with them syringes filled with the latest fentanyl formula, offering to pay those living at such camps up to $30, to those agreeable to allowing the experimental batches to be injected into them. There are times the operatives visit daily to watch as the drugs take effect; snapping photos and filming reactions to the drugs.

"When it's really strong, it knocks you out or kills you. The people here died", explained one of the homeless men who had volunteered himself repeatedly. The chemicals required to produce the opioid have become more difficult to access as a result of efforts to crack down on the synthetic opioid. Originally sourced from China, exports of the raw ingredients have now been restricted, leading the cartels to these risky new methods of maintaining production of fentanyl.

 

A member of the Mexican navy and a canine sentry patrol Mexico’s Port of Manzanillo last year. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

 

This type of experimentation involves the drug being combined with a wide range of additives -- including animal sedatives and other anesthetics that can be dangerous. Testing the results they come up with involves injecting these mixtures into animals like rabbits and chickens, as well as human subjects willing to lend themselves as guinea pigs. According to a number of cooks, should the rabbits survive beyond 90 seconds, the drug is considered to be too mild for the American market. 

 

The U.S. government places the blame on fueling a synthetic opioid on the Sinaloa Cartel. According to one cook's explanation, he began recently mixing fentanyl with an oral surgery anesthetic. Another cook using a cartel safe house in Sinaloa State explained that if the batch was too insipid, he would add xylazine, an animal tranquilizer.

According to cartel members, drug users and experts, many users in North America look to access a particularly deadly batch they know will get them high. "One dies, and ten more addicts are born", one operative for the cartel said: "We don't worry about them".

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at the National Palace in Mexico City last month with a letter destined for Donald Trump. The U.S. president-elect has threatened steep tariffs if Mexico fails to stem a tide of drugs and migrants flowing north. Carlos Ramos Mamahua/Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via REUTERS